This was supposed to be an active off season for the Minnesota Twins, especially on the free agent market. After a slow start, it became apparent that the team wasn’t going to be making much of a splash. Then, after making a couple trades, they started to make some moves in the free agent market, and they were horrifying. Kevin Correia for how much? Mike Pelfrey? Rich Harden? All right, guys we don’t need to make moves just to make moves.
Of course, there were rumors floating that they might be interested in Scott Podsednik and other similar players. Given the offseason to this point, there has been much trepidation here in Minnesota that one of those players actually would arrive. Naturally, when I heard that the Twins added a player today, I was concerned. I heard the name “Perez” and naturally assumed “Neifi”.
Alas, it was not Neifi Perez, because Neifi Perez retired in 2007 (back when Jamey Carroll should have). Instead, it was Rafael Perez, pictured dramatically and quite flatteringly above. Rafael Perez was a bullpen arm for the Cleveland Indians up to this point in his career. He does a good job at avoiding contact and has been around, well, ever since the days of Neifi.
The wily veteran was said to be “arguably the best left-handed reliever on the planet,” by Peter Gammons back in 2007 when he posted a Sub 2.00 ERA. Terry Ryan does know how to build a bullpen, and adding a veteran coming off an injury may be the way to do it. At least one part of the team will work this year.
If you were curious, Rafael Perez is on Twitter, but he has not ever tweeted. So he’s smart, too.
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